A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING

A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING BY
GSM NETWORK PROVIDERS IN NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS
BY
ABATTA ABIMBOLA FLORENCE
MATRIC NUMBER: ENG/13/1236
A LONG ESSAY SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF
ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS,
FEDERAL UNIVERSITY, OYE-EKITI, NIGERIA.
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
AWARD OF BACHELOR OF ARTS (B.A. HONS) IN ENGLISH AND
LITERARY STUDIES.
NOVEMBER, 2017
i
CERTIFICATION
This is to certify that this project was carried out and written by ABATTA, ABIMBOLA
FLORENCE with Matric No.ENG/13/1236 under the supervision of Dr. Wasiu Ademola
Oyedokun-Alli and approved for submission to the Department of English and Literary Studies,
Faculty of Arts, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the award of Bachelor of Arts in
English and Literary Studies, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
_______________________
_________________
DR.WASIU ADEMOLA OYEDOKUN-ALLI
DATE
SUPERVISOR
_______________________
___________________
DR .HARRY OLUFUNWA
DATE
H.O.D
________________________
___________________
EXTERNAL EXAMINER
DATE
ii
DEDICATION
This research work is dedicated to the most important people in my life, my late dad, mum and
siblings and to all language scholars.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
When I reflect upon my life as an undergraduate, I cannot but express my gratitude to everyone
who supported me throughout my undergraduate days. First and foremost, my sincere gratitude
goes to Almighty God, who has been my father, pillar, strength and hope. My gratitude also goes
to my mum for her unwavering support, motivation and encouragement throughout my
undergraduate days. Extra special thanks also goes to my wonderful siblings (Adeola and Rachel
Abatta), they have really been the most amazing sisters. I would also like to thank my supervisor
Dr. Wasiu Ademola Oyedokun-Alli for his dedication, guidance and support during this study.
Special appreciation to my wonderful school family- Elder Abatan & family; Oladele Grace
(school sister); school brothers (Ajayi Kunle, Obakunle Love, Ayoade Ben and Adeniran Joy),
and TACSFON Oye-Ekiti chapter for their spiritual and emotional support even when I wanted
to give up. My list would be incomplete if I fail to mention my best friends, Adeshote Mercilina
and Olokunlade Jadesola for being there to teach me how to really value friendship. In addition, I
would also like to appreciate all the lecturers who have positively and greatly contributed to who
I am today. My gratitude also goes to my classmates for their direct and indirect support. An
exceptional appreciation goes to Owoyomi Pelumi my unwanted friend and brother for his
support and aid throughout this research. Finally, I would like to thank all my relatives and
friends for their prayers, encouragement and support all through my undergraduate days.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page
i
Certification
ii
Dedication
iii
Acknowledgements
iv
Table of content
v-ix
Abstract
x
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
1
1.1 Background to the study
1-3
1.2 Aim and objectives
3-4
1.3 Research questions
4
1.4 Statement of research problem
4
1.5 Significance of the study
4-5
1.6 Scope and delimitation
5
1.7 Research methodology
5
1.8 Theoretical Framework
5-6
1.9 Conclusion
6
v
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.0 Introduction
7
2.1 Definition of keywords
7-8
2.2 Advertising: as a form of communication and its language
8-11
2.3Classification of advertising
11-12
2.4 GSM network providers in Nigeria
12-13
2.4.1 MTN Nigeria
13-14
2.4.2 Globacom Limited
14
2.4.3 Airtel Nigeria
14
2.4.4 Etisalat
14-15
2.5 Newspapers in Nigeria and its functions
15-16
2.6 The concept of Stylistics, Style and Language
16-18
2.7 Levels of stylistic analysis
18
2.7.1 Graphology
18-19
2.7.2 Phonology
19
2.7.3 Grammar
19
2.7.4 Lexico-Semantics
19
2.7.5 Reference
20
vi
2.7.6 Foregrounding
20-21
2.7.7 Cohesion
21-22
2.8 Theoretical Framework
22
2.8.1 Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)
22-23
2.9 Conclusion
23
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
24
3.1 Research Sample
24
3.2 Method of data collection
24-25
3.3 Method of Data Analysis
25
3.4 Types of Data
25-26
3.5 Conclusion
26
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.0 Introduction
27
4.1 Presentation and discussions of MTN adverts
27
4.1.1 Analysis and Discussions of data 1: MTN XtraSpecial
27-29
4.1.2 Analysis and Discussions of data 2: Smartphones Love MTN
30-31
4.1.3 Analysis and Discussions of data 3: MTN YafunYafun Bonus
32-34
vii
4.2 Presentation and discussions of ETISALAT adverts
34
4.2.1 Analysis and Discussions of data 4: ETISALAT Easylife
34-35
4.2.2 Analysis and Discussions of data 5: Receive calls for free
36-37
4.2.3 Analysis and Discussions of data 6: Your favourite club
37-38
4.3 Presentation and discussions of GLO adverts
38
4.3.1 Analysis and Discussions of data 7: Free data day
38-41
4.3.2 Analysis and Discussions of data 8: Glo campus booster zone
41-42
4.3.3 Analysis and Discussions of data 9: Glo Mega music nationwide tour
43-44
4.4 Presentation and discussions of AIRTEL adverts
45
4.4.1 Analysis and Discussions of data 10: Truly unlimited data plans
45-46
4.4.2 Analysis and Discussions of data 11: Do not buy a pre-registered sim
46-47
4.4.3 Analysis and Discussions of data 12: 3-in-1 data, voice and sms bundle
48-49
4.5 Analysis of colour
49-50
4.6 Analysis of Slogan
50-51
4.7 General discussion
51
4.8 Conclusion
52
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATIONS AND REFERNCES
5.1 Conclusion
53-54
viii
5.2 Recommendations
54
5.3 References
55-57
APPENDIX
Data 1 MTN
58
Data 2 MTN
59
Data 3 MTN
60
Data 4 ETISALAT
61
Data 5 ETISALAT
62
Data 6 ETISALAT
63
Data 7 GLO
64
Data 8 GLO
65
Data 9 GLO
66
Data 10 AIRTEL
67
Data 11 AIRTEL
68
Data 12 AIRTEL
69
ix
ABSTRACT
Advertising is a distinct form of communication and the language used for communicating
adverts is distinctive and alluring. Advertising as a form of communication requires a lot of
imagination, creativity and logical thinking for it to be effective and successful. The aim of this
study is to analyse how GSM network providers employ stylistic features in advertising to the
target audience. The study explores non-verbal elements such as slogan, colours, logo, celebrity
endorsements, pictures, social media sites, contact details that were used by GSM network
providers in their advertisements. The research also investigates stylistic features such as:
graphology, foregrounding, lexico-semantics, syntactic, phonological and devices such as
imperative verbs, positive adjectives, nouns, adverbs and personal pronouns, personifications in
the four major GSM network providers in Nigeria. The research revealed that persuasive
elements are eminent in advertising language. The findings of this study contribute to the field of
research into or in advertising as it examined language, stylistic features and the effects of GSM
network providers’ advertising on the target audience.
KEYWORDS: Advertising, Language, Communication, GSM Network Providers, Stylistics,
Newspapers.
x
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives background information on the focus of this research work. This chapter
concentrates on: definition of communication, advertising as a form of communication,
telecommunication in Nigeria, media of communication and types of communication media
in Nigeria. This chapter further introduces the aim and objectives of the study, statement of
research problem, scope, significance of the study, research methodology and theoretical
framework.
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Communication is an important aspect of the society. It is believed to be the life blood
of human existence. It involves the interaction between two or more people and in some cases
it involves one person (intrapersonal communication). Communication, especially modern
means of communication has turned the world into a global village because in these modern
times, an individual can communicate with another person with ease regardless of distance.
Merriam-webster.com/dictionary defines communication as a process by which information
is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs and behavior.
From this definition, it can be deduced that there are certain tools, mediums or means that
enable communication to take place. These means could be verbal, written or non-verbal and
they could be traditional or modern.
The two broad media of communication are verbal and non-verbal. Verbal
communication involves communication through words and it could either be oral or written.
Oral communication means transmission of messages through spoken words which could be
face-to-face or take place telephones, videoconferences, radio or television. Written
communication conveys messages in writing through channels such
as: brochures, magazines, newspapers, flyers, internet, e-mails, journals, memos, articles,
billboards, postcards etc.
Non-verbal communication on the other hand is a form of
communication that takes the following forms: body language (facial expression, posture, eye
movement, gesture etc.), paralanguage means ‘like language’. Suffice it to say that words
convey meaning through paralanguage. It takes place through tone and pitch of voice.
Another form of non-verbal communication is the use of sign language which involves visual
signs and audio signs. Visual signs communicate through: carvings, pictures, drawing,
paintings, maps, diagram, colours, posters, charts, graphs, slides etc. while audio signs
convey messages through means such as: alarm clocks, siren, bells, ambulance etc. Nonverbal communication supports the notion that human beings do not communicate through
words alone.
Language, whether verbal, written or non-verbal plays a vital role in communication.
According to Sapir (1921:8), Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols. Since
communication is an act of transmitting or conveying ideas, thoughts or messages, it can be
deduced that advertising is a form of communication. As language plays a key role in
communication, so is language of paramount importance in advertising. Advertising is a form
of communication because it involves the sender (advertiser), the message (the advertisement
itself) and the receiver (the target audience). The advertiser uses persuasive and creative
language to draw the attention of his audience.
Advertising is an audio or visual form of marketing communication that employs
certain creative techniques or methods to ‘promote’ or ‘sell’ products and services (source:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising). In advertising, the choice of language varieties
influences how advertisements are structured and conveyed to the audience. Okpaleke
(1992:21) in Ezejideaku&Ugwu (2010)opines that the language
of advertising must be informative, instructive, distinctive, alluring and persuasive. Language
has a strong influence over people and their behaviour. The language of advertising is usually
positive and it emphasizes why a product stands out in comparison with another. Advertising
is a form of communication and it persuades us with the aim of influencing our decision
towards acquiring a particular product. The advertiser’s choice of language to positively
influence the attitude of the audience is very essential. Advertisement is communicated
through various means such as: television, radio, magazines, e-mails, bill-boards, internet,
flyers, posters, newspapers etc.
According to Leech (1966:25) in Ezejideaku&Ugwu (2010), the four characteristics
of successful advertising are: attention value, readability, memorability and selling power. By
attention value, this means that it must provoke the consumer’s attention and curiosity.
Readability of advertising means that the message must be easily grasped and assimilated.
Memorability involves the features in advertising such as: brand names, slogans that make it
to be memorable and easily remembered while selling power refers to grammatical features
such as imperative clauses that make advertising saleable. From the foregoing, Advertising as
a form of communication requires a lot of imagination, creativity and logical thinking for it to
be successful and effective.
1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this essay is to carefully examine the language features of network providers in
the process of advertising their products. To achieve this aim, this research work would be
hinged upon the following objectives.
(i) The choice of language used in advertising
(ii) The effects of the choice on the target audience
(iii) To examine the stylistic features of GSM network providers’ newspapers
advertisements.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
(i)
What is the choice of language used in advertising?
(ii)
What are the effects of the choice on the target audience?
(iii)
What are the stylistic features of GSM network providers’ newspapers
advertisements?
1.4STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
Communication is an integral part of the society and since advertising is a form of
communication, the domain of advertising is a domain where diverse researches have been
carried out. Several scholarly researches have been carried out on the area of advertising
language, forms of advertising and so on. For instance, Adegoju (2014) examined the verbal
and visual signifiers in some GSM advertisements in Nigeria, Ezejideaku and Ugwu (2010)
examine the linguistics of Newspaper adverting in Nigeria, Kannan and Tyagi (2013) also
investigated the use of language in advertisements, Kadry (2015) explored the creative
concept and its role in advertising design and even a stylistic analysis of English online
advertisements by telecommunication providers has been carried out by Haulofu (2017). This
research work seeks to carry out a stylistic analysis of the language of advertisement of GSM
network providers in selected Nigerian newspapers. This research work would focus on the
four major GSM network providers in Nigeria: Mtn, Glo, Etisalat and Airtel.
1.5SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research work would be of immense value to those who have particular interests in
Stylistics and mode of advertisement. Though diverse researches have been carried out on
different modes of advertisements, this work is specific in that it focuses on the
advertisements of network providers. This present study would focus on four major GSM
network providers in Nigeria. It would serve as a referential source for any scholarly research
to be carried out in areas similar to the focus of this research work.
1.6 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
As highlighted earlier, there are numerous channels or means of advertisements such as
television, radio, magazines, internet, newspapers, telephones, handbills etc. it would be
impossible to use all these channels as primary source for the advertisements to be used for
this project within the given time. To be able to complete this project in time, the primary
source of data would be newspapers. This work would carry out both linguistic and literary
stylistic analysis and different levels of stylistic analysis such as: graphology, syntax,
phonology, lexico-semantics, references, cohesion, foregrounding, and deviation.
1.7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study is structured within the methodological framework of stylistics. The sampling
technique adopted for this research is the purposive sampling technique which is a deliberate
selection of data sources to cater for the requirements of the research. Hence, this research
work would examine the four major GSM service providers in Nigeria which are Mtn, Glo,
Airtel and Etisalat. Three newspapers advertisements on each GSM service provider would
be selected, making a total of twelve sources of data for analysis.
1.8 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The essence of the theoretical framework in research writing is to backup the research work
with theories that are appropriate to the study in order maintain the relevance of the study to
scholarship. The theory to be used for the study is Halliday’s Systemic
Functional Linguistics (SFL) which is a theory of language that centers on the view of
language function
1.9 CONCLUSION
This chapter has provided a general introduction into the concerns and focus of this study. It
lays a foundation for identifying the progression of the study.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Having presented a general introduction to the study in the previous chapter, this chapter
would focus on the review of related literature on this particular study. Studies which are
based on advertising language, advertising as a form of communication, telecommunication
in Nigeria, GSM service providers in Nigeria and levels of stylistic analysis would be
reviewed in this chapter. Apart from that, the theoretical framework that is relevant to this
study would be discussed in this chapter.
2.2 DEFINITION OF KEYWORDS
Advertising: This is a form of communication that employs persuasive language in order to
induce the audience’s behaviour into taking a positive action towards advertised products or
services.
Language: This is a vehicle, medium or means that enables communication to take place.
Communication: This is the process of exchanging information, messages, and ideas
between individuals. It is considered to be an integral part of the society.
Telecommunication: These are devices and systems that transmit electronic signals across
long distance and enable people around the world to communicate and access information
easily.
GSM service providers: GSM means Global system Mobile and GSM service providers are
telecommunication officials who are responsible for
Stylistics: It is the linguistic study of style in texts. It studies features of texts such as
grammar, phonology, graphology, cohesion, literary devices, and figuration and so on.
Newspapers: These are forms of print media usually published weekly or daily and which
contain different news, articles and editorials and so on.
2.3 ADVERTISING AS A FORM OF COMMUNICATION
Advertising is derived from the Latin word ‘advertere’ which means “to direct
attention towards something”. Advertising is a form of register in that it has its unique style,
distinct language and mode of expression. According to Oxford dictionary, to advertise is to
present or describe a product, service or event in the media in order to increase sales. Citing
(Boove 1992:7) in Taflinger, “Advertising is the non personal communication of information
usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by
identified sponsors through the various media”. From the above definitions, it can be
construed or explained that advertising involves notifying, calling or drawing attention to or
communicating products, services or ideas. Cook, Guy. (2008) affirms that advertising’s
creative use of language makes it a rich domain for language and discourse analysis. Relating
this assertion to the given definitions of advertising, advertising and language are interwoven.
Suffice it to say that advertising is a form of communication used to influence
individual towards acquiring products and services. For any communicative event to take
place there must be a language which could be verbal, written or non-verbal and the purpose
of this language is to influence people and their behaviour. To support this fact, OyedokunAlli in A Linguistic Exploration of Propaganda in Advertising in Nigeria (2013:63) asserts
that “language is man’s major means of communication and social intercourse. It is also used
to influence the behaviourial patterns of others”. It is a natural instinct that advertising must
be communicated in a language which is comfortable to the audience and influences them in
a positive manner.
Advertising often attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume a
particular brand of product or service. According to Vestergaard and Schroder in Lapsanka
(2006), communication involves six types of language function which are: expressive,
directive, informational, contextual, poetic and interactional. The expressive function focuses
on the addresser's feelings and wishes, directive influences the addresser's actions, beliefs or
emotions, informational function deals with meaning, contextual and poetic functions are also
associated with meaning (poetic uses poetic devices) while the interactions function of
language is mostly associated with advertising. This is so because it is used to express,
terminate and maintain contact between the addresser and the addressee (Wejher, 2015).
Language has a powerful influence over people and their behaviour. The choice of
language to convey messages with the intention of influencing people is paramount to
advertising. Kannan and Tyagi (2013) highlight that the language of advertising is normally
very positive and this helps to emphasize why a particular product stands out in comparison
with another. In their work, they highlighted the features of advertising language such as:
hyperbole, neologisms, long noun phrases, short sentences, ambiguity, and weasel words, the
use of imperatives, euphemisms, colloquial language, syntactic parallelism, and
glamourisation and so on. Advertisement must catch the attention of the reader or audience
and identify the product. To achieve this effect, uncommon, surprising, interesting and
fascinating texts with ‘catchy’ phrases or slogans are created.
According to Kenechukwu et al (2013), the language of persuasion is very important
for a successful advertising campaign. Persuasion is the act of causing people to do or believe
something. Persuasion means to induce people to take a desired action towards something.
This persuasive language plays a key role in advertising because the main purpose of
advertising is to induce the audience into taking a positive attitude
towards a product or service. Nweke(2001), cited in Asemah (2012) says Persuasion is a
systematic and skillful method of creating awareness aimed at changing or strengthening
opinions, attitudes, beliefs or values for a more positive outcome. Kruti and Alan (2009)
explain that persuasive effect of advertising message is governed not only by what is said but
also by how it is said. Persuasive advertising seeks to entice the audience into purchasing
goods and services by appealing to their emotions and general sensibilities.
This view is further corroborated by Seiter (2010:33) in Jafari and Mahadi (2014),
“persuasion is an umbrella term of “influence”; in the sense that persuasion can effort to
influence an individual’s beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviours”.
Persuasion is aimed at changing an individual’s attitude or behaviour towards some event,
idea, object or other person(s), by using written or spoken words to convey information,
feelings, or reasoning…. It is a known fact that advertisements are perfect examples of
persuasive texts because the aim of advertising is to influence the behaviours and attitudes of
the audience towards a particular product or service through the creative use of persuasive
language in advertisements. Jafari and Mahadi (2014) highlight that the text of advertisement
must accomplish these tasks: to attract reader’s attention; to appeal to the reader; to generate
desire for the product; and to arouse action. With this in mind, several persuasive means are
utilized in advertisements by advertisers.
According to Kadry (2015), creativity is the soul of advertising; it is what gives life to
advertising. Since creativity involves the ability to create, invent or produce something new
or original, advertising tends to use creative means in words, images, colour, and so on in
order to achieve the purpose of advertising. Citing Leech (1972:25) in Lapsanka (2006)
affirms that the language of advertising belongs to "loaded language". This loaded language
has the aim of changing the will, opinions or attitudes
of the audience. Leech (1966) in Vasiloila identifies four major characteristics of advertising.
They are: attention value, readability (simple, personal and colloquial style), memorability
and selling power. It was observed by Lapsanka (2006) that the informal style of advertising
language predominates over the formal style. Apart from that, another study by Robert (2013)
has revealed that advertisers often use figurative expressions, simple diction – because it is
audience-driven, proper names to showcase the name behind the product and emotive
expression to compel consumers to choose a particular product instead of others
According to Karlsson (2015), the primary parts of the process of persuasion are
comprehension and acceptance. In his research, it was shown that viewer can be guided
through comprehension and acceptance of the message by the usage of exophoric references
and secondary participants. The advertisers try to impose their own concern on the viewer by
creating an imagined interpersonal relationship with the viewer. From the above explanation,
it can be inferred that advertising is a form of interpersonal communication. Although it is not
a face-to-face kind of communication, it is believed it involves at least two people, the sender
(the advertiser) and the receiver (audience). Generally, communication is the act of
transmitting information from an encoder to the decoder. Merriam-Webster's dictionary
defines communication as the act of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviours to exchange
information or to express ideas, thoughts, feelings and so on.
2.4 CLASSIFICATION OF ADVERTISING
Advertising according to (source: http//www.managementstudyguide.com) is
classified into five parts which are: print, broadcast, outdoor, covert and public service
advertising. In addition, advertising information or messages are communicated to the target
audience through various media such as: print media, electronic media, and outdoor media
and so on.
(i)
Print advertising: this form of advertising is communicated through the print
media which are physical printed materials such as newspapers, brochures,
magazines and so on.
(ii)
Broadcast advertising makes use of electronic media such as television, radio
or
(iii)
internet for advertisements.
Outdoor advertising makes use of outdoor media such as billboards, handbills,
kiosks, tradeshows to advertise products and services.
(iv)
Covert advertising involves the inclusion of advertisements in a movie or TV
serial
(v)
Public service advertising is for public causes. Important social issues such as
AIDS, political integrity, illiteracy, poverty and so on are the focus of public
service advertising.
As stated previously, print media advertising uses physically printed media
such as: newspapers, magazines, etc. for advertising. It would therefore be essential to
note that the primary source of this study is the print media and due to time limitation,
this study would focus on only one of the forms of print media which is the
newspapers.
2.5 GSM NETWORK PROVIDERS IN NIGERIA
It is a common belief that every human society relies on some form of
telecommunication. Communication defines a society because without communication, it
would be impossible for any group of people to define their collective identities or make
decisions. Telecommunication facilities in Nigeria were established in 1886 by the colonial
administration. Telecommunication is the transmission of signs, signals, messages, words,
writings, images and sounds or intelligence through electromagnetic systems. (Source: https:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki).The history of Global System for Mobile Communication in Nigeria
can be traced to the deregulation of the
Telecommunication industry which paved way to the GSM revolution from the year 2001.
Audile (2000) described the Global System for Mobile Communication as part of the
evolution of wireless mobile telecommunication.
The emergence of GSM revolution can be traced to the administration of former
President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2001. It is also worthy of note that the advent of GSM
communication in Nigeria has immensely improve the communication system and the rate of
the development of the country. Unlike the previous times when traditional means of
communication such as letter writing, town criers and so on are used for communication,
GSM communication which is a modern form of communication has not only provided a
platform of job opportunities for the citizens, but it has also made communication easier
because one can communicate with others through the GSM communication system across
distance barrier.
In Nigeria, there are four major top GSM service operators which are: Mtn, Glo, Etisalat and
Airtel. These four major GSM network providers form the focus of the source of data.
2.5.1 MTN Nigeria is part of the MTN Group, a South Africa-based multinational and
Africa’s leading cellular telecommunications company. It operates in many African,
European and Asian countries. On May 16, 2001, MTN became the first GSM network to
make a call following the globally lauded Nigerian GSM auction conducted by the Nigerian
Communications Commission earlier in the year. MTN is the biggest telecommunication
service provider in Nigeria:
“Since MTN was launched in August 2001, it has steadily deployed its services across
Nigeria. It now provides services in 223 cities and towns, more than 10,000 villages
and communities… many of these villages and communities are being connected to
the
world
of
telecommunications
for
the
first
time
ever”
(source:www.mtnonline.com).
MTN’s prevailing mission is to be a catalyst for Nigeria’s economic growth and
development, helping to unleash Nigeria’s strong developmental potential not only through
the provision of world class communications but also through innovative and sustainable
corporate social responsibility initiatives.As at April of this month, MTN had 58,121,427
users.
2.5.2 Globacom Limited (GLO) is a Nigerian multinational telecommunications company
with its headquarters in Lagos. GLO is a privately owned telecommunication carrier which
started operations on 29th of August, 2003(Wikipedia.com). It is owned by the Mike Adenuga
Group. It was the fourth GSM operator to be launched in Nigeria and as at April of this year,
GLO had 37,270,100 subscribers in Nigeria.
2.5.3 Airtel Nigeria is a private telecommunication service provider and it is a subsidiary of
Indian telecommunications company, Bharti Airtel. It was formerly known as Celtel Nigeria
and was established in 2000. On August 1, 2008, Celtel Nigeria was rebranded Airtel Nigeria.
Airtel Nigeria currently covers over 1,500 towns and 14, 000 communities in Nigeria and it
offers a series of voice, text and internet services.Airtel Nigeria had 34,336,802 subscribers
according to the study conducted in April.
2.5.4 Etisalat was founded on October 5 1976 in the United Arab Emirates and operates in
countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa. In Nigeria, Etisalat began trading in
October 2008. The mission of this telecommunication group is to extend to people’s reach by
developing advanced networks that support people and allow them to develop, learn and
grow. Etisalat had 19,045,686 subscribers in Nigeria as at April. Suffice it to say that Etisalat
GSM network provider changed its brand name to 9mobile on the 13th of July, 2017. It was
asserted in punchng.com that the name change follows the pullout of Mubadala Group,
Etisalat’s major investor from the United Arab
Emirates over some debts accrue by Etisalat Nigeria. For this study, Etisalat adverts in
newspapers were analysed.
2.6 NEWSPAPERS IN NIGERIA AND FUNCTIONS
The newspaper is a type of print media that has aid fast circulation of information before
the advent of online media. Citing Habeeb (2012), the newspaper is a fraction of one of the
means of mass communication which is the print media. It is usually sectioned based on
subject matter and content. The most important news is usually displayed on the front page of
the newspaper. A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events,
informative articles, editorials, advertisements, politics, business, entertainment, crime,
society, history and many more.
The history of newspapers in Nigeria can be traced back to the 1840’s when European
missionaries established community newspapers in order to circulate Christianity. In 1850,
Nigeria posted its first newspaper called ‘IweIrohin’. It was set up by an Anglican
missionary, Reverend Henry Townsend. IweIrohin was Yoruba Africa’s first vernacular
newspaper. Its full name was “IweIrohin Fun Awon Ara EgbaAti Yoruba” which is translated
to English language as “Newspaper in Yoruba for the Egba and Yoruba People”. Initially, it
was published in Yoruba language but later it became a bilingual newspaper published in
both Yoruba and English languages. IweIrohin did not contain editorial unit till 1862 and
advertisements until 5 years after its establishment.
IweIrohin was a channel for the growth of other newspapers such as: Anglo-African
in 1863, Lagos Weekly Times in 1890, Daily Times in 1926, The West Africa Pilot in 1937,
Nigerian Tribune in 1949, The Comet Newspaper, The Messenger, Daily Service, The
Guardian in 1983, The Concord Newspaper, This Day and so on. Some of the lists of
newspapers that are currently published in Nigeria are: The Guardian, Independent, Mirror,
Nation, Punch, Vanguard, Sun, This day, Tribune,
Daily Post and Triumph Newspapers and so on. The newspapers from which the four GSM
network providers’ advertisements were culled are: The Punch, This Day, The Vanguard and
Tribune.
There are four major functions of newspapers which are to inform, interpret the news,
to provide a service to readers and to entertain (source: http//www.pdesas.org).
(i)
To inform: Newspapers tent to be informative because the present facts that
readers should have in order to be informed citizens and for the purpose of
making decision.
(ii)
To interpret the news: Stories in newspapers tend to interpret, explain or give
the
meaning of news to the readers. Often, these stories contain the writers’
opinions.
(iii)
To provide a service to readers: Newspapers provide information that helps
reader solve their business, personal or daily living problems. For instance,
advertising
aids in informing readers about products and services.
(iv)
To entertain: Certain sections of the newspaper are designed to provide
entertainment for the readers.
2.7 THE CONCEPT OF STYLISTICS, STYLE AND LANGUAGE
Stylistics is the linguistic study of style in texts. Stylistics focuses on the function
which a chosen style has fulfilled. Style may be regarded as a choice of linguistic means, as
deviation from the norms of language use, as recurrent features of linguistic forms, and as
comparisons. Style arises from the possibilities of choice among alternative forms. It is the
study of the ways in which meaning is created through language in texts. Texts in this sense
could be literary or non-literary, oral or written. Stylisticians use linguistic models, theories
and frameworks as their analytical tools in order to describe and explain how and why a text
works as it does, and how we come from the words to their meaning (Norgaard et. al 2010:1).
The goal of Stylistics is to describe the formal features of texts such as morphology,
phonology, grammar, semantics, cohesion, coherence, foregrounding and so on and their
functional significance for the interpretation or semantic relation of the text. Quoting Crystal
(1989:66) in Zyngier’sTowards a Cultural Approach to Stylistics:
“Style is seen as the (conscious or unconscious) selection of a set
of linguistic features from all the possibilities in a language. The
effects these features convey can be understood only by
intuitively sensing the choices that have been made… and it is
usually enough simply to respond to the effect in this way. But
there are often occasions when we have to develop a more
analytical approach… Here… our intuition needs to be
supplemented by a more objective account of style. It is this
approach which is known as stylistics”.
From the above excerpt, it can be deduced that style arises from the possibility that
there are numerous forms from which one could choose. The focus of stylistics is to analyse
these forms used in texts and how they contribute to the semantic relation of the text. Hence,
style is primary to stylistics.
Simpson (2004:2) asserts that Stylistics is a method of textual interpretation in which
primacy of place is assigned to language. Simpson further says, “to do stylistics is to do
language, and specifically, to explore creativity in language use”.
From the foregoing, it can be deduced that without language, stylistic analysis would be
impossible. Stylistics focuses on the styles of language use in both literary and non literary
texts. The units and levels of language analysis form the basis of stylistic analysis.
Furthermore, stylisticians help to establish and analyze various speaking and writing
habits through stylistics. Through it, one learns why language is used the way it is in various
situations. Style could be variation in language used in texts and this language variation as it
occurs in texts is the focus of stylistics. It is believed that to do stylistics is to explore
language that is, exploring creativity and invention in language. Language is so important to
Stylisticians because the various forms, patters and levels that constitute linguistic structure
are an important index of the function of the text. The test’s functional significance acts as a
gateway to the interpretation of the text. Stylistics is therefore explores how readers interact
with the language of texts in order to explain how we understand and are affected by the
texts. Hence, stylistics and language are interwoven.
2.8 LEVELS OF STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
Stylistic analysis attempts to provide a commentary which is objective and scientific, based
on
concrete
quantifiable
data
and
applied
in
a
systematic
way
(https:/www.thoughtco.com/stylistics-language-studies.httml). When carrying out stylistic
analysis, there are certain features that one would look out for. Texts whether written or
spoken are organized through several distinct levels of language such as: phonology,
graphology, lexico-semantics and grammatical. These levels of language form the basis of the
stylistic analysis. The stylistic features to be highlighted and discussed are: graphology,
phonology, grammar, semantics, lexis, cohesion, coherence, foregrounding etc. Below are the
various levels of stylistic analysis which stylisticians aim at investigating when analyzing
texts:
2.8.1 GRAPHOLOGY AND GRAPHETICS
Graphology is the study of a language’s writing system and the formalized rules of spelling in
texts while graphetics is the study of written or printed shapes in texts.
Features such as punctuations, capitalizations, orthography, font style and size, spellings,
pictures and images, emphatic devices such as emboldening, underlining, italics, block
letters, quotation marks and colouring are the basis of graphological analysis.
2.8.2 PHONOLOGY
This is the study of sound system of a language. Phonological analysis focuses on the
analysis of sound patterns, utterance of different words and forming systemic use of sound in
language sin order to know the meaning, ideas, focuses, idiosyncratic behaviours in a text.
Phonological features that are analyzed here are: alliteration, repetition, consonance,
assonance and onomatopoeia.
2.8.3 GRAMMAR
Grammar is classified into morphology and syntax. Hence, the grammatical features of texts
are divided into morphological and syntactic features. Generally, grammatical features
include, word classes, phrases, clauses and sentences. Morphological components are word
formation processes such as: affixation, neologisms, compounding, back formation, blending,
abbreviation, coinages and acronym and so on. Syntactic features include phrases, clauses,
and sentences. The essence of this level of stylistic analysis is to put through an analysis to
discover what the norm is and what is in some way deviant against the norm.
2.8.4 LEXICO-SEMANTIC FEATURES
This is the combination of both lexical and semantic qualities of texts. Focus is on words that
is lexical relations and their meanings according to the context – types of meaning and
change in meaning. Lexical-Semantic features include: simile, metaphor, irony, synecdoche,
metonymy,
denotation,
connotation,
collocation,
synonymy,
antonymy,
polysemy,
homonymy, hyponymy, homography and homophony.
2.8.5 REFERENCE: This is a relation of pronouns in texts used to achieve cohesion. An act
by which a speaker or writer uses language to enable a listener or reader to identify
something. In texts, reference is used to describe the functions of words like pronouns and
determiners to designate a noun phrase they identify with in the immediate co-text that is the
endophoric reference Wales (2011:360). Reference is subdivided into four parts which are:
endophoric, exophoric, cataphoric and anaphoric.
Endophoric reference also known as the co-text is an item in a text that refers to something
else in the text.
Exophoric reference refers to something outside the text and it is closely related with
intertextuality.
Anaphoric reference is a co-reference by ‘backward-looking’. It is a subsequent reference
within a text which is used to refer to an already introduced concept.
Cataphoric reference it is a reference within the text but unlike the anaphoric reference, it is
achieved by ‘looking forward’. It helps to link sentence with sentence and simultaneously
avoiding repetition.
2.8.6 FOREGROUNDING: This is an important concept in Stylistics that refers to the act of
making certain features prominent in a text. Foregrounding are elements of a text which stand
out or are deviant from or parallel to what one would expect or what is conventional
(Norgaard, et al 2010:95). From the foregoing, it can be deduced that deviation and
parallelism are the elements used to achieve deviation in texts. Citing Aklier and Hayat
(2012), foregrounding involves a defamiliarisation, deautomatisation or highlighting of some
kind in the lexemes or syntax of some discourse. Hence, it is the central means of
defamiliarisation which is an act of making unfamiliar what is familiar. The term
foregrounding relates to linguistic devices on all levels of language that somehow stand out
against the background of the text in which they occur (Norgaard
et.al 2010:94). Deviation and parallelism are examples of foregrounding. Deviation refers to
the movement away from a norm on all linguistic levels while parallelism is characterized by
repetitive structures. Foregrounding enhances the meaning potentials of a text. Also, an
object may be foregrounded through words or visually through features such as size or colour
which can make it prominent in contrast to other representational elements.
2.8.7 COHESION: This refers to a text’s grammatical connectivity. It relates to how words
and sentences in a text are held together lexically and grammatically as a whole. Cohesion is
an important aspect of advertising text. The essence of cohesion is to achieve unity,
continuity and fluency of the text. English sentences can be cohesively linked in various
ways. The various methods of achieving cohesive ties in texts are:
Referential cohesion: occurs when linguistic items ‘make reference to something else for
their interpretation’ (Halliday and Hasan, 1976:31 in Norgaard, et al 2010:54). Examples of
reference are pronouns such as ‘she’, demonstratives such as ‘this’ and articles such as ‘a,
the’. Suffice it to add that, the referent (the element referred to) may precede the referring
item (anaphora), or follow it (cataphora).
Conjunctional cohesion: This is achieved through the use of conjunctions such as ‘but, or,
then, accordingly’ by clearly signaling how different parts of a text relate to each other.
Elliptical cohesion: this type of cohesion is achieved through ellipses and it links different
parts of a text by means of omission such as in ‘I could offer her a lift. But no, I won’t_’
where a cohesive tie exists between the empty slot following ‘I won’t’ and ‘offer her a lift’ in
the first sentence.
Substitutive cohesion: this is closely related to elliptical stylistics. Using the above sentence,
substitutive cohesion can be achieved by substituting some lexical items with
the empty slot to link the two sentences together as in, ‘I could offer her a lift. But no, I won’t
do so’.
Lexical cohesion: this is divided into three subcategories which are: repetition, synonymy
and collocation. Repetition occurs when a lexical item is repeated in its identical or near
identical form e.g. ‘sleep/sleep or sleep/sleeping’. Synonymy involves the case in which a
lexical item is reiterated or repeated by some kind of synonym such as hyponymy, meronymy
and antonymy. Collocation is cohesion created by means of words that have the tendency to
co-occur such as ‘freezing and cold’, ‘make and decision’.
2.9 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This sub-section presents the theoretical frameworks used in the analysis of this research
work. The theory on which this study is hinged is Systemic Functional Linguistics.This
theory is chosen due to its relevance to this study.
2.9.1 SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS
Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a theory of language that centers on the
notion of language function. It is an interface between choices of words and how they are
structured and the meaning made by those words. Systemic functional linguistics (SFL)
accounts for the syntactic structure of language and places the function of language as central
(what language does and how it does it). Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) looks at how
language acts upon social context and how it is constrained by it. It explores how language is
used in social contexts to achieve particular goals. Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) grew
out of the work of JR Firth, a British linguist of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s but was later
developed in the early sixties by M.A.K. Halliday who studied under him. SFL attempts to
understand the manner by
which language is utilized for various reasons and in various scenarios thus serving as a
communicative motivation in the learning of language.
A central notion of Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is “stratification”. This
implies that language is analysed in terms of strata which are: context, semantics, lexicogrammar and phono-graphology. This study aims at analyzing the network providers’
language of advertising based on the models of language stratification mentioned above. The
context of the advertising language of network providers in this study is ‘newspapers’ and as
the advertisements are presented in newspapers, the semantic, lexico-grammatical and phonographological components of the newspaper advertisements.
2.10 CONCLUSION
This chapter examined and analysed various researches that have been done in the field of
advertising and it also gives a detailed explanation of the theoretical framework employed in
the analysis of the research data.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
The previous chapter reviewed related literatures to this study and also presented the
theoretical framework of the study. Consequently, this chapter would concentrate on the
research method and methodology with focus on sub-sections such as: research sample,
method of data collection, method of data analysis, sampling techniques, source and types of
data.
3.2 RESEARCH SAMPLE
Citing Bhattacherjee (2012) in Haulofu (2017), sample is defined as “the actual units selected
for observation”. Sampling is a way of selecting a number of things from a larger group for
the purpose of getting invaluable information. For the purpose of this study, focus is on the
advertising language of the four major network providers in Nigeria which are: Mtn, Glo,
Airtel and Etisalat. Three advertisements in Nigerian newspapers were chosen from each
GSM service providers making a total amount of twelve research samples.
3.3METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
This study would use purposive sampling technique to ensure that the researcher obtain the
required information for this study. The newspapers to be used are: because they contain the
required samples for this study. Purposive sampling technique is a non-scientific sampling
technique which implies the deliberate picking of samples to cater for the researcher’s need.
Citing Easterly-Smit, Thorpe and Jackson (2015:339) in Haulofu (2017), “purposive
sampling technique is defined as a form of non-probability sampling technique where the
criteria for inclusion in a sample are defined and entities
are first screened to see whether they meet the criteria for inclusion and those entities that
meet the criteria are included in the sample”. To support this definition, Cooper and Schindler
(2014:87), state that with purposive sampling, “the researcher has a clear idea of what sample
units are needed according to the purpose of the study, and then approaches potential sample
members to check whether they meet eligibility criteria”. This implies that the samples that
rally up with the requirements of the researcher are adopted for the study. Hence, the
researcher initially scrutinized the Nigerian newspapers for GSM service providers’
advertisements and those that meet the requirements of the study are chosen.
3.3 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
The researcher analysed the advertisements of GSM service providers in Nigerian
newspapers by carefully examining the general stylistic features of the advertisements. The
basis of the analysis is on the different levels of stylistic analysis such as: phono-graphology,
lexico-semantics, morpho-syntactic, cohesion, reference and foregrounding. Suffice it to say
that these levels of stylistic analysis have been discussed in the previous chapter.
3.4 TYPES OF DATA
This section would highlight the primary and secondary sources of data for the purpose of
this study.
Primary data: This is the exactor main text that would be analysed in this study. It serves as
the basis of the study because without the primary text or data, it would be impossible to
carry out the study. Hence, the primary data for the present study is the newspapers which
contain the four network providers’ advertisements. The newspapers from which the data are
retrieved are: The Punch, This Day, The Vanguard and Tribune.
Secondary data: These are other materials such as textbooks, online resources, articles,
journals, theses, dictionaries and so on which help to support and provide referential sources
for the study. These secondary texts serve as reference materials for the ease of the research.
3.5 CONCLUSION
This chapter has provided information on the data for this study. It gave insight into the
method of data analysis and it also supplied relevant information about the source of data.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter comprises of the presentation and analysis of research data. It encapsulates the
application of the theoretical framework in the analysis of the data which results in the
understanding of the stylistic features of network providers' adverts on newspapers pages.
4.1PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF MTN ADVERTISEMENTS
4.1.1 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 1
Figure 1:MTN XtraSpecial
Figure 1 is MTN's advert in the Punch newspapers of the 30th March, 2017. This
advert features on an MTN call tarrif called MTN XtraSpecial. From the image of the man
used in the advertisement, it can be inferred that MTN XtraSpecial is targeted at the businessclass audience. The man is dressed like a business man and as it is typical of business men,
this particular business man is making a phone call. Beneath
the business man’s image are images of some world cities’ statues. This implies that the tariff
is especially exclusive to business men who make calls to local and international destinations.
4.1.1.2 GRAPHOLOGICAL FEATURES
The first statement in figure 1 is ‘Introducing MTN Xtraspecial’ and it has some
graphological features. The statement is written in such a way that when uttered, one is
overwhelmed with a feeling of curiosity to know and learn more about the plan; what makes
it extra and special? Also, MTN is written in block letters in the text and this is peculiar to
this particular network provider because writing MTN in block letters gives it a bold and
attention-drawing quality. Apart from that, the word ‘extra’ is spelt differently. The first
syllable ‘ex’ is orthographically modified and substituted with the alphabet ‘x’ because it is
phonetically similar to the syllable ‘ex’. This special effect is used to catch the audience's
attention. Lastly, ‘X’ and ‘S’ in XtraSpecial are capitalised to attract people and to lay
emphasis. From this, one can deduce that this particular plan is extraordinarily unique.
15k/sec to all local and most international destinations*.
With MTN XtraSpecial call rates to both local and most international destinations
would be enjoyed as low as 15k/sec. To do this, all an MTN user has to do is to ‘Dial
*408*1#’. The imperative verb 'dial' is used to trigger an action in the readers. The procedure
to follow in enjoying this offer is written in figures rather than words. This is to catch the
readers’ attention to the figures.
After this are two bulleted lists which are:

Free incoming calls on roaming

Over 5GB of data for N2000 on dealzone
This list is highlighted through the use of bullets to catch the readers’ attentions that there are
additional benefits for MTN XtraSpecial subscribers. The subscribers stand to enjoy not only
call rates at 15k/sec but also free incoming calls while roaming and 5GB of data on dealzone.
In figure 1, there is an asterisked list of twenty-nine countries to make a referential
connection to the ‘international destinations’ mentioned earlier in the advert. This is to
validate and emphasize the fact that XtraSpecial offers low call rates to these international
destinations. With this, the reader is assured that this is not just a mere assumption but a
statement of fact. To support this also are the images of some of the different international
destinations such as the statue of Liberty which is an icon of freedom in New York City, the
Eiffel Tower in Paris, Elizabeth’s Tower in London, to serve as reference point to some of
the cities where XtraSpecial is suitable. Hence, the asterisked list of the twenty-nine
international destinations, with images of some of the destinations’ statues are cohesively
linked together.
T&Cs apply
This means "terms and conditions" apply to MTN XtraSpecial. It is very important to
point out the fact that this always comes last and is usually somewhat concealed. This
important item could be ignored or discarded by the reader. This is so because if it comes first
and is not concealed, the reader might be discouraged from subscribing to MTN XtraSpecial
when one thinks about the term and conditions attached to it. Hence, the aim of its
concealment is to make the subscriber eagerly subscribe to MTN XtraSpecial before noticing
the terms and conditions. In this advert, rather than write it in full form, it is abbreviated and
it is usually concealed among other texts in the advert. This is done to draw the readers'
attention away from it.
4.1.2 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 2
Figure 2: Beautiful Day
Figure 2 is an MTN advertisement which was placed in the Punch on the 17th of May,
2017.
The first text in figure 2 is ‘Smartphones Love MTN’. There is the use of
personification in this statement. Smartphones are mobile phones that have advanced features
and greater computing capacity than featurephones. From this definition of smartphones, it
can be deduced that they are inanimate objects yet in the statement above; the word is
attributed with an animate attribute to mean that Smartphones are capable of loving
something as humans. The connotative meaning of this statement is that Smartphones work
more effectively with MTN. They make browsing, surfing the internet, accessing the various
social media, uploading pictures and videos easier. This statement is to inform the audience
that with MTN, diverse things could be done with ease on smartphones.
IMAGE
On figure 2, there is a picture of three smiling ladies. Beside the image of the first lady is
a hashtagged caption: #BeautifulDay. This is to emphasize the fact that the picture is an
uploaded caption on the social media. Smartphones allow ‘selfies’ to be uploaded faster on
the MTN network. Just as these ladies have captured their moment on a very beautiful day,
every MTN user can also capture every moment of each beautiful day!
The next item on figure 2 is a declarative statement. Declarative statements make
assertions of fact or truth. The statement ‘With Nigeria’s widest data network, you can do
amazing things’. Here, the compound adjective ‘Nigeria’s widest data network’ is used to
qualify MTN. This is to say that MTN is Nigeria’s widest network and without it one cannot
enjoy the amazing things one is prone to enjoy from MTN’s full network coverage.
Nowadays, most people prefer having data subscriptions to having airtime on their
smartphones. So, being the widest data network, MTN allows its users do amazing things on
their smartphones such as: surfing the internet, uploading pictures and videos and even
making business transactions with ease. Noticeably, the sentence above ends with a period.
This is to inform the audience or readers that amazing things as mentioned previously begin
and end only with MTN. Also, there is referential cohesion in the statement. The Nigeria’s
widest network is making reference to MTN. Thus, Nigeria’s widest network equals to MTN.
4G LTE is the last item on the advert apart from the logo and slogan of MTN. LTE
means Long-term evolution and it is a standard for high-speed wireless communication for
mobile phones and data terminals. Unlike MTN 2G and 3G, MTN 4G LTE offers faster
download and upload speeds that swill improve one’s internet experience. Everything in this
advert both the images and written texts are cohesively linked together. With MTN 4G LTE,
one can do amazing things.
4.1.3 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 3
Figure 3: Yafun Yafun Bonus
Figure 3 is also an MTN advertisement that was placed in the Punch on the 20th 0f
June 2017. Figure 3 is concerning YafunYafun Bonus on the MTN StartPack. MTN
StartPack is the striking feature in the advert is the image of a Nigerian star who is a
renowned comedian called YAW. The comedian puts on a yellow shirt which also glorifies
the colour of the network provider, MTN. The colour yellow is symbolic in this advert. It
signifies a lot of things such as sunshine, happiness, hope, positivity, freshness, joy and
cheerfulness. These features can be noticed from the smiling face of the comedian’s image.
Hence, it can be deduced that YafunYafun Bonus would certainly make a new MTN user
exhibit all these features.
GRAPHOLOGY
In this figure 3, ‘YafunYafun Bonus’ is more emphasized than any other word.
YafunYafun Bonus is emboldened and it is in larger fonts compared to other words.
The essence of this graphological feature is to lay emphasis on it and to draw the reader’s
attention to the emboldened words.
YafunYafun means plenty, abundant and extra. It is a Pidgin word that almost every Nigerian
is familiar with. Bonus is emphasizing YafunYafun in order to inform the readers that they
stand the chance to enjoy abundant, excess, and overflowing bonus on MTN.
The next statement to be analysed in figure 3 is an imperative sentence which is ‘Join MTN
and get 6 times the value of all your recharges to call all networks in Nigeria’. Imperative
sentence is used to create a sense of “one person talking to another and being urged to take an
action”. So, this advertisement urges the reader or audience to take some action. This is a
statement that is imploring the non MTN user who is reading the advertisement to join,
connect with, be a part of and start using MTN in order to get six times bonus of every
recharge.
IMAGE
The image in figure 3 is that of the comedian raising six of his fingers upwards. This is to
emphasize the six in the imperative sentence mentioned previously and to highlight that the
bonus one gets on MTN StartPack is six times the original recharge value. The raised fingers
are to catch the readers’ attention and arouse an interest in the reader to learn by reading more
about the advertisement. Hence, the six raised fingers are cohesively linked to the six times
value one gets on MTN StartPack.
FOREGROUNDING
The foregrounding feature used here in figure 3 is deviation. Deviation is a shift away from
the norm which is evident in this advert. From YafunYafun Bonus to Nigeria,
there is no full stop, this is to show that when one begins to subscribe to MTN network, the
MTN user would enjoy unlimited, unending and superfluous bonus.
Load N100, N200 and N500 have black backgrounds. This means that after scratching and
loading one of 100, 200 0r 500 naira recharge cards, what one gets are N600, N1200 and
N3000 respectively which is six times the value of the original recharge.
The next item in figure three is a bulleted list

Plus free 10MB data on recharge from N200 and above on MTN Dealzone.
This is to show that there is an additional bonus for MTN Dealzone subscribers because they
are not only opportune to enjoy six times the value of their recharges, but they would also be
given free 10MB data to browse on every recharge which is above N200.
4.2 ANALYSIS OF ETISALAT ADVERTISEMENTS
4.2.1 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 4
Figure 4: Easylife
Figure 4 is an Etisalat advert placed in the Punch newspapers on the 13th of October 2016.
This advert is on a particular etisalat plan called ‘easylife’.
The first element that strikes one’s attention in this figure 4 is the image of a man who is
smiling into his phone as he is lying back-flat on the bed. Also on the bed is a large image of
the number 15. Beside this man are four cushion pillows with the number 15 repeated in the
texts written on each pillow. From this, the number 15 is used repeated to emphasize it and to
communicate a message to the reader. With this, one is kept in a kind of suspense and one
would wish to know the message this advertisement seeks to pass across.
The first text in figure 4 is ‘life’s complete on easylife’. Easylife is emboldened to lay
emphasis and to attract the readers’ attention because it is the focus of the advert. One can
infer from this that on easylife tariff plan; one can enjoy a complete easy calling and
browsing life. From the relaxed position of the man’s image, it can be deduced that an etisalat
subscriber can relaxingly experience and enjoy easy life.
The things one can enjoy on easylife as inscribed on the pillows in figure 4 are:
15k/s to all networks, 15 free minutes on-net, 15k/s to US, UK and more and 15 free minutes
of data. After this, a detailed explanation on how to enjoy these items on easylife is
highlighted. On easylife, a subscriber is opportune to enjoy calls to all networks at 15k/s and
also calls to US, UK, Canada, Germany and Malaysia at the same 15k/s. Apart from this, if
an etisalat subscriber makes calls on easylife complete for 20 days, one can enjoy free 15
minutes browsing and free 15 minutes to call any etisalat line every month.
Figure 4 also provides useful additional information after the main message has been
conveyed. In order to opt in to this etisalateasylife, all one has to do is to dial *620*1#. This
tariff also attracts a daily fee of N5 and the plan is also available on postpaid.
4.2.2 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 5
Figure 5: Receive calls for free
This Etisalat advert in figure 5 was placed in the Punch newspapers on the 18th of September
2015. The first text is ‘receive calls for free in 10 countries’. ‘Receive calls for free’ is written
in black, while ‘in 10 countries’ is written in green.
On figure 5, there is the picture of a man who is making calls on his phone while standing in
the middle of the road of an international city. This is to make reference to the fact that the
message of the advert deals with calls when roaming in international destinations.
The imperative verb ‘receive’ is used to subtly attract the readers in paying attention to the
advert. The adjective ‘free’ is also there to attract potential customers and already existing
MTN customers. Even though it is not actually free because one must have used a minimum
of N5, 000 to enjoy the offer.
The sentence “receive calls for free in 10 countries” has very large fonts compared to other
written texts in the advert and there are elements of grammatical deviation in the sentence.
One, the initial letter of the first word in this sentence is not capitalised and
the sentence does not end with a full stop. The aim of using big fonts and applying
grammatical deviation in the advert is to draw the readers’ attention to the advert and make
them give attention to the advert.
On etisalat network, a subscriber can receive calls at no cost when roaming in the 10
countries which are: USA, UK, France, UAE, South Africa, Ghana, Spain, Netherlands,
Germany & Turkey. To corroborate the above notion is an image of an international city.
There is a cohesive link between the image and the highlighted list of countries.
The adverb ‘simply’ is used in “simply recharge a minimum of N5000 to enjoy this offer for
30 days in the ten listed destinations” to encourage and inform the readers that what they
have to do to enjoy the offer is very simple.
4.2.3 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 6
6:
Figure
Your
favourite club
Figure
6
which is an Etisalat advertisement was placed in the Punch newspapers on the 20th of June,
2011.
In figure 5, “your favourite club & your favourite network” have no punctuations and are
written on small letters. These are elements of deviation which aim at drawing the attention
of the readers.
The image in figure 5 is the stadium of Football Club Barcelona called Camp Nou. The
image of the stadium is curved in the shape of Etisalat logo to emphasize the fact that the
advert is an Etisalat advert. Thereare two logos appearing on the image of the stadium. The
first logo is the Barcelona logo which is drawing the attention of the readers especially
football fans to the second logo which is the network provider’s logo. It is necessary to note
that Fc Barcelona won the Uefa Champions League trophy which is the most viewed sport
league in the year 2011. The pitch is in green colour to emphasize the colour of etisalat.
The phrase “the winning team” is written in small letters and it appears on the network
provider’s logo to conform to the already existing small letters. Thisphrase makes reference
to Fc Barcelona as the winning team.
The sentence “enjoy the best of both worlds with etisalat and fcbarcelona” is to attract the
attention of the readers.It also informs the readers that they stand the chance to enjoy the best
which both worlds of etisalat network provider and Fc Barcelona club has to offer. In the
sentence, etisalat is written in green to represent the colour of Etisalat.
On the right side of the newspaper advert are the logos of fcb and etisalat. Beneath the logos
is a phrase “Official International Partner of FCBARCELONA”.From the phrase it can be
deduced that Etisalat is an official international partner of Barcelona.
4.3 ANALYSIS OF GLO ADVERTISEMENTS
4.3.1 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 7
Figure 7 is a Glo advert. It was placed on the 6th of August, 2017 in This Day’s newspaper.
The advert conveys messages about Glo free data day and on the advert are the images of
three popular Nigerian hip hop artistes.
Figure 7: Free data day
GRAPHOLOGICAL FEATURES
Some of the graphological features found in figure 7 are emboldening, block letters and so
on. FREE is emboldened in the midst of other words written in block letters. The essence of
this is to draw the reader’s attention. The words have a kind of announcement-like effect
when uttered. The reader feels as if the advertiser is right there.
The compound sentence “Use 100MB plus N150 on voice calls or just N250 on voice calls in
the preceding week to enjoy” informs the reader about the criteria to enjoying
free data on the 11th of August. Every Glo subscriber who wants to enjoy it must have used
either 100MB plus N150 worth of airtime or N250 worth of airtime on voice calls in the
week that precedes the fixed date.
IMAGE
In figure 7, there are two set of images. The first is the image of three Nigerian famous
hiphop singers namely: Olamide, Dija and Phyno. This is to attract the attention of the fans of
these singers. The image of these singers portray that they are Glo subscribers and since fans
are fond of imitating stars, the fans of these singers would equally be persuaded to subscribe
to Glo network. Thus, the image has a causal effect in the readers.
The second images on the advert are the images of the logos of diverse social media handles
such as: Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Skype, Youtube and so on.
These social media handles are there to entice and fascinate the readers on the various social
media they can access through Glo’s free data.
_ Turn up the fun with free N200Mb on Free Data Day to enjoy more uploads, downloads,
streaming, all your social media apps and whatever else rocks your boat.
The above compound sentence cohesively corroborates the fact that on this free data day, Glo
subscribers can enjoy a wide range of things with the free data. There is the use of
conjunctional cohesion to show that every part of the sentence relate to each other. The
sentence is humourous and playful to produce a kind of feeling that the advertiser is right
there conversing with the readers and encouraging them to join the fun.
It is a common thing for advertisers to use positive lexical items to make readers fascinated
by and interested in their products. The nominal group “the grandmasters of data” is written
in block letters to catch the readers’ attention but a positive noun
‘grandmasters’ is used. This is to show that even if all other network providers are ‘masters
of data’ they cannot beat Glo because Glo is ‘grandmasters of them all’. The nominal group
‘the grandmasters of data’ is precise and straightforward. There is also a referential link
between the nominal group and Glo itself. One can thus refer ‘Glo’ to ‘the grandmasters of
data’ and vice versa. The essence of this is to arouse the readers’ interest in Glo products. As
humans, we always prefer the superior and best to inferior or just good and Glo has used the
power of word to inform the readers that ‘Glo’ is superior to other GSM network providers.
4.3.2 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 8
Figure 8: Glo Campus Booster Zone
Figure 8 is a GLOadvert in the Vanguard on the 11th of September, 2016. This advert is all
about a Campus Plan which aims at targeting students, lecturers and anyone who lives on
campus across Nigeria with the Glo campus data booster initiative.
GRAPHOLOGICAL FEATURES
The graphological features in this advert are capitalisations, enlarged fonts, images and
colour.
The statement “N100 GIVES N1000 WORTH OF DATA & VOICE ON CAMPUS” in
figure 8 is written in block letters to attract the readers’ attention. The statement is also
declarative because it simply states a fact that N100 worth of recharge card gives N1000
worth of data and voice calls only on campus. To be a part of this, one must be on campus,
must be a Glo subscriber and would choose the plan by dialling *777#. Suffice it to say that
this Glo Campus Booster Zone is available in over three hundred higher institutions in
Nigeria.
Data and voice are capitalized in “Every recharge allows DATA & VOICE” as seen in figure
8 above to draw attention to it and to emphasize that on every recharge from as low as N100
or more, a glo subscriber would enjoy both data and voice bonuses.
IMAGE
On figure 8, there is the image of a Nigerian popular hip-hop artiste named Reekado Banks.
This artiste is dressed like a student to corroborate the advert’s intent to target campus
students. He’s holding a smartphone and beside the smartphone is a clustered image of
diverse social media’s logo such as: BBM, Snapchat, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Whatsapp, Gmail, LinkedIN, Yahoo mail and so on. These are various social media which
students have access to.
A little behind the artiste is a sign post displaying “GLO CAMPUS BOOSTER ZONE
RELOADED”. This is to lay emphasis and catch the readers’ attention. The word campus
would attract undergraduates and arouse them into taking further interest in the advert and its
content. Sign posts are used in real life to make people stop and take a look at the message
conveyed by the signpost which is to give directions. Hence, the signpost used in the advert is
there to draw the readers’ attention and make them ‘stop’ to pay careful attention to the sign
on the post.
THE LARGEST DATA NETWORK
FASTEST AND MOST AFFORDABLE
Glo used positive superlative adjectives here to attest to the good qualities of the GSM
network provider. It can be inferred from the above that among all GSM data network
providers in Nigeria, Glo is the largest, fastest and most affordable.
4.3.3 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 9
Figure 9: Glo Mega Music Nationwide Tour
On the 20th of October 2017, a music tour advertisement was placed in the Tribune by Glo.
According to www.gloworld.com, Glo Mega Music Tour is an assemblage of the hottest
music superstars like Flavour, Timaya, Olamide, Omawunmi, YemiAlade, Wizkid, P-Square
and so on. The concert promises to be the grandest music concert in Nigeria this year. This
music tour covers twenty-seven locations across Nigeria. Also,to attend the show, Glo would
give out complimentary invitation tickets to customers who have actively used their Glo
lines. The essence of this particular innovation is a way of appreciating and honouring the
Glo subscribers across the country for their loyalty, support and abiding faith in Glo network
brand over the years. This advert is also targeted at glo subscribers whose preferred location
is Ikorodu. It conveys the actual venue, date and time of the Music Tour in Ikorodu to Glo
subscribers who have met the criteria of winning a free ticket.
GRAPHOLOGICAL FEATURES
The graphological features evident in figure 9 are the use of Block letters or capitalisations,
images and punctuations. The first graphological feature of this advert is a five-word phrase
which is capitalised and written in the lemon green colour that is attached to Glo. The essence
of capitalisation is for emphatic reasons and to draw readers’ attention to the phrase.
The second graphological feature is the use of single quotation marks in “Experience all the
Music ‘A’ Listers together on one stage”
From the the above sentence, ‘A’ is in quotes to draw the readers’ attention to the exciting
fact that one can experience music A-Listers who are considered as the most sophisticated,
hottest and most popular. They are simply first rate musicians and as such, readers’ interest is
aroused to experience the music tour.Also, there is lexical deviation in the sentence. Music
and Listers are not proper nouns, yet their initial letters are capitalised in the sentence. The
aim of deviation is to project and draw attention to the deviated features thereby laying
emphasis on it.
Furthermore, words like FREE, MUSIC, 207 and N2,000 stand out in the advertisement
through the use of black colour, capitalisation and quotations. Hence, to win a FREE ticket, a
Glo subscriber would simple text ‘MIUSIC’ followed by the preferred location to 207 and
simply use N2,000 in a month on the subscriber’s Glo line. Here, the positive and enticing
adjective ‘free’ is used to qualify the noun ‘ticket’ to catch the readers’ attention even though
in actual sense, the ticket is not totally free because one must have used N2,000 in a month on
one’s Glo line in order to win the supposedly free ticket.
IMAGE
A group picture of fourteen famous Nigerian hip-hop musicians such as: Phyno, P-Square,
Dija, Flavour, Korede Bello, Omawunmi, YemiAlade and so on can be seen in figure 9. On
the right hand side towards the edge of the advert is a hashtag – #GloMegaMusicTour. This
image is to affirm the notion present in the text that all the Music ‘A’ Listers would assemble
together on one stage.
4.4 ANALYSIS OF AIRTEL ADVERTISEMENTS
4.4.1 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 10
Figure 10: Truly Unlimited Data Plans
Figure 10 is an Airtel advert in the Punch on the 16th of August, 2017. The advert conveys
information about Airtel’s unlimited data plans.
The first item on figure 9 is a nominal phrase written in block letters with the middle word
emboldened - THE SMARTPHONE NETWORK. In the advert, there is an endophoric
reference between the above phrase and the network provider, Airtel. Here, the smartphone
network refers to Airtel.The phrase implies that Airtel is very good, efficient and effective
with smartphones. Whatever one has to do with one’s
smartphone ranging from voice calls, uploading pictures and videos, browsing the internet
and so on, Airtel is the suitable network.
Smartphone is emboldened in the midst of the phrase in order to draw the readers’ attention
aand lay emphasis on the word since smartphones are commonly used nowadays. Owning or
possessing smartphones is what is in vogue in the society.
INTRODUCING... TRULY UNLIMITED DATA PLANS
As mentioned earlier on, the figure 9 introduces the readers to unlimited data plans on Airtel.
Plan 1- unLIMITED 10 at 10,000 naira for 30 days.
Plan 2- unLIMITED 15 at 15, 000 naira for 30 days.
Plan 3- unLIMITED20 at 20, 000 naira for 30 days.
To purchase any of the plans above, an Airtel user would either dial *462*10#, *462*15#,
*462*20# respectively or visit the given website www.onetouch.ng. Numbers are written in
Arabic numerals and not word to easily catch the reader’s attention.
To further inform and enlighten the readers about the unlimited data plans are two asterisked
statements:
**Fair usage policy applies to all unlimited data plans. However, you can continue to enjoy
unlimited browsing till your plan expires.
4.4.2
AND
ANALYSIS
DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 11
Figure 11: Do not buy a pre-registered sim
Figure 11 was placed on the 7th of September 2016 in the Punch newspapers. The Airtel
advert conveys invaluable information to new Airtel subscribers and existing users who wish
to purchase new Airtel. It informs them not to purchase pre-registered SIM and it also
highlights five easy steps to join or be a part of the Airtel family.
The first step is to buy an Airtel SIM and after that, the buyer or user must register the
SIM card an Airtel registration outlet. This second step emphasize that the SIM must be
registered by the user himself or herself through the use of block letters – Register the SIM
YOURSELF. The next step after registration is for the user to insert the SIM in a phone.
After that, the phone should be recharged. After recharging the phone, the user can make
calls, send text messages or use data within 48 hours of purchase in order to stay active on
Airtel network.
With the 5 highlighted easy steps and illustrations to emphasize them, one can be an active
member of the Airtel family.
Below the illustration are two statements. The first one is to inform the readers that the
focus of the advertisement is to ensure that users’ registration details are protected
in line with NCC directive. It is just as if the users are being advised that ‘to be forewarned is
to be forearmed’. The second statement is written in block letters to attract the readers’
attention and to caution them against buying or selling a pre-registered SIM which is an
infringement against the law. And everyone knows that any one that infringes against
stipulated law would certainly be apprehended and punished in accordance to the law. Hence,
since the readers have been warned through this advertisement, they would think twice before
buying or selling pre-registered SIMS.
4.4.3 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF DATA 12
Figure 12: 3-in-1 data, voice and sms bundle
This Airtel advertisement in figure 12 was placed in the Punch on Monday, July 14, 2014.
The advert conveys a message about roaming and free incoming calls in twenty-six countries.
The dominant colour of the advert is red; this is the dominant colour that is associated with
Airtel.
There are elements of deviation in the advert such as the presence of sentences whose initial
word does not begin with a capital letter. The essence of deviation is to draw attention to the
deviated item.
Graphologically, numbers are written in Arabic numerals and not in words to catch the
readers’ attention. So, in the advert, the numbers: 26, 60, 50, 90, 5,000 and 789 are easily
seen as they stand out in the advert.In addition to that, there is the use of double colon and
bullets to list the offers to be enjoyed on the tariff by Airtel subscribers. Thus, “outgoing calls
at #60”, “SMS at #50” and “up to 90% discount on data” appear in bullets to easily catch the
readers’ attention.
Another feature in this advert that is aimed at attracting potential customers of Airtel is a
phrase “3-in-1 data, voice & bundle”. This feature stands to catch the audience’s attention.
When, one sees it, one would be eager to learn more about the 3-in-1 bundle that is being
advertised.
4.5 ANALYSIS OF COLOUR
Colour is a very important semiotic element employed in advertisements to attract the
audience’s attention and to persuade them to acquire a particular product or service. Certain
colours tend to give life an0d freshness to something that seems gloomy or dark. Colour
works as a factor for remembering a particular brand of product and for identification.
Different colours are adopted in the advertisement to fascinate and grab the readers’ attention
because when colours are well combined and organised, they produce fascinating and breathtaking effects.
In the MTN advertisements, different colour are used but the dominant colour which has
come to be identified with MTN is the yellow colour. Connotatively, the colour yellow
implies happiness, cheerfulness, joy and vitality and these features can
spread to every user of MTN.The dominant colour in Etisalat advert is the greencolour. The
colour green is the colour of renewal, nature, life and energy.
In the Glo adverts, the dominant colour which is also identified with the network
provider is lemon-green. Green is a colour that connotes renewal, life, energy, growth and
harmony. Also, the two colours on the logo of this network provider signify a sense of
nationality. The two colours which are green and white reflect the country’s national identity
which is evident in the national flag. ‘Glo’ is considered as an orthographic deviation of the
word ‘glow’ which means to be bright or to radiate light. Hence, Glo prides in itself as being
a truly indigenous brand (Globacom was established by a Nigerian) and it is in harmony and
sync with the national identity due to its colour.
In the Airtel adverts, the dominant colour which is also identified with Airtel and its
products is red. Red connotes blood, passion and fire. Since blood is a very vital element in
human beings, it can be deduced that Airtel is a network that is very vital to smartphones
since it is considered as the smartphone network. Therefore, colour is a signifier which is
associated with the GSM network providers and which helps to create a mental picture of the
network providers.
4.6 ANALYSIS OF SLOGAN
A slogan is a distinctive phrase associated with a product used in advertising. Slogan is a
word or phrase that is usually eye-catching and which is used to in advertisement to make
readers or audience identify with the product or service that is being advertised. As peculiar
to Globacom Telecommunications Company, the slogan is “Glo Unlimited”. This implies
that there are infinite, unrestricted, endless and limitless things to be enjoyed by Glo
subscribers ranging from local and international calls, browsing and surfing the internet. On
the other hand, the slogan of MTN is ‘everywhere you go’. This means that MTN’s network
coverage extends to everywhere - either urban or rural areas, and anywhere in the geopolitical
zones of the country. The
slogan for Etisalat Nigeria is ‘now you’re talking’. This symbolizes that it is only Etisalat that
can provide and offer clear and standard network. It also shows that now that you are
‘talking’ on Etisalat, there is no room for network failure. Airtel on the other hand has ‘The
smartphone network’ as its slogan. This means that Airtel is very efficient with anything one
wants to do with smartphones, such as calling, texting, uploading pictures, browsing and lots
more.
4.7 GENERAL ANALYSIS
This research work discovers that images, celebrities’ images, graphological features
such as: capitalizations or blockletters, emboldening, colours, large fonts, orthographical
modification are present in newspapers advertisements by GSM network providers. Also,
lexical items such as: noun, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are also employed in the adverts.
Though, verbs, adjectives and nouns appear to be quite frequent. In addition to that, the
personal pronouns “you and your” are also used by GSM network providers in the advert.
The adverts also contain slogans and logos of each network provider. These two
features are parallel in the adverts in order to catch the readers’ attention and to familiarize
the readers with them in such a way that one cannot confuse the logo or slogan of MTN with
that of GLO. There are also images of social media sites and handles on the adverts. This is to
inform the readers about the social media sites where services are offered by the network
providers. Finally, another feature that is common to the four GSM network providers’
newspapers’ adverts is “terms and condition” which is always at the background. Most times,
it is often discarded and ignored by the readers because the fonts may appear too tiny or it
may even be abbreviated. If the readers fully comprehend the essence of this “terms and
condition”, they might be get discouraged and lose interest in the advertised product or
service. Hence, it is always somewhat concealed in the advertisements.
All the features mentioned above are employed in newspapers’ advertisements by
GSM network providers to attract potential customers and to motivate already existing
customers to keep on patronizing them.
4.8 CONCLUSION
This chapter comprises the presentation, analysis and discussions of this research work.
It examines the various stylistic features employed by GSM network providers in newspapers
advertisements.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 CONCLUSION
At the beginning of this research work, certain objectives were highlighted to form the
basis of this research work. The objectives are:
(i)
To examine the choice of language used in advertising.
(ii)
To study the effects of the choice of language on the target audience.
(iii)
To examine and analyze the stylistic features of the language of
advertising.
During the course of this study and with these objectives in mind, it was found out
that persuasion is the language of advertising. These GSM network providers adapt,
use or employ diverse persuasive elements in advertising their products thereby
convincing the target audience why their products are best. For instance, in one of the
Airtel adverts, the noun ‘family’ is used to describe all Airtel users. A family is a
group of people related by blood. This implies that all Airtel users have a kind of
bond or relatedness that can make them refer to one another as family. Hence, there is
a link or bond that makes all Airtel users and the owners of the GSM network
provider a family.
The researcher also discovers that persuasive language is a language of
manipulation. GSM network providers tend to use this persuasive language to
manipulate the audience’s feelings and emotions thereby inducing them to accept the
message and change their attitude towards what is being promoted, the advertisers
have to create an imagined interpersonal relationship with the audience this is
achieved through the use of reference, personal pronouns – your and you.
1
The study also shows that telecommunications providers commonly use devices
such as graphology and foregrounding for emphasis and to attract the attention of the
reader; lexical devices such as – positive adjectives, nouns, adverbs, imperative verbs
and pronouns to encourage the audience to be a part of the telecommunications
provider. Adjectives are used to describe the positive and attractive aspects of the
products, adverbs are used to create a sense of immediacy and personal pronouns are
used to address the audience more personally.
Advertisers also use pictures, colours, celebrity endorsements to accredit the
products, create attention in order to attract potential customers and maintain alreadyexisting customers thereby improving sales of the products. There are also diverse
offers of incentives in form of instant, daily, weekly or monthly promotions, bonuses
and discounts to attract new customers and maintain existing customers. These
incentives help to encourage and motivate customers and keep them anticipating for
more.
To cap it up, the advertisers make conscious effort at creating an atmosphere of
joy, happiness, celebration and a stress-free world of communication to give the
impression that being a part of the advertised network take away worries, sadness,
hopelessness, disappointments and frustrations occasioned by poor service delivery.
GSM network providers therefore focus on the positive and fascinating aspects of
their network to attract the audience and keep them optimistic with regards to the
network and what they have to offer. Therefore, the strategies and devices discussed
above are very instrumental to the effectiveness of GSM network providers’
advertising in Nigerian newspapers.
2
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
The researcher recommends that future researches can be carried out on radio and
television adverts, usage of indigenous language in telecommunications providers’
advertisements.
3
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DATA 1, MTN
7
DATA 2, MTN
8
DATA 3, MTN
9
DATA 4, ETISALAT
10
DATA 5, ETISALAT
11
DATA 6, ETISALAT
12
DATA7, GLO
13
DATA 8, GLO
14
DATA 9, GLO
15
DATA 10, AIRTEL
16
DATA 11, AIRTEL
17
DATA 12, AIRTEL
18
19